


Fallen Bliss

by ZenoTheManager



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Heartbreak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:55:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25667797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZenoTheManager/pseuds/ZenoTheManager
Summary: Adam Taurus, a man who has committed more atrocities than can be counted, has fallen. Destroy by not only the world, but the very woman that had promised to stay by her side, but this is not the end. His story is not over.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Adam Taurus
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Rejection. Brutality. Powerlessness. 

Thousand curses on the soul who brought upon me all of those things. No. Thousand curses on Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. Those insufferable fools had handed me the ultimate disrespect… and smarter everything I had done for that stupid Belladonna.

“RAH!” I yelled, breaking the surface of the fast moving river. My mind was spinning, my body was barely able to move, and water burned the sword wound that had found its way through my body.

How dare they.

“AGH!” I yelled as I slammed into a rock, which spun my barely alive body on top of the surface of the horrid water. It burned more than just the wound, but my entire body.

“Failure… Failure is not an option. Taurus. And you...have failed.” A nondescript voice spoke in a wobbly voice, overshadowed by the rotating river around me. I wish it would just stop roaring, I wished everything would just stop. Hadn’t I endured enough pain? Enough suffering?

Hadn’t I done enough?

From there, my blurred vision had faded to nothing. The roaring of the river, no not just the river, but the whole world had been silenced. The burning sensation filling my body had emptied itself completely. There was nothing left inside, or outside, of me but that nothingness. That calmness. That serenity. The gods had answered my call, finally...I had peace.

“At what cost have you earned this peace Adam?” A disembodied male voice asked me. 

“What does it matter, the path justifies the goal.” I spoke to the darkness, though I couldn’t even hear the sound of my own voice.

“Is that the truth you stick by?”

“Of course I stick by it! It’s gotten me here hasn’t it?” I shouted out to the voice. It sounded as if it were judging me. 

“Then you aren’t ready Adam. You still have much to learn.” The voice spoke once again, and then I felt it’s presence disappear. Slowly, light began to fill the darkness I had found myself in. The roaring of the river, though slightly quieter this time, had returned to my ears, and slowly but surely, the blue sky too filled my vision.

“So, you’re awake?” A voice asked beside me, and I began to realize I was no longer in the water, and I was no longer moving, but I was on a beach, lying in sand. I tried to look up, but I could barely even raise my head. Despite this, I was able to see just a little bit of everything around me.

I was on a beach, on the edge of an endless body of water, with a cliff to my side and a campfire directly in front of me. The sun was getting closer to the horizon, shooting the beginnings of the sunset colors into the atmosphere. The person who had spoken was to my right, and it was a woman I had never met once in my life.

"Who are you?" I spat, trying to raise my head a little more, but failing once again.

”Don’t strain so much. You might hurt yourself.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?” I spat out, trying to look at the person, but I just couldn’t. My guts felt as if they were burning, and blood flew from my mouth as I yelled. I still wasn’t healthy, how long had passed? I fell back down onto the sand, and gripped it with my free hand. The grains flew freely from my hand, falling through the cracks just as I had.

“Is that any way to talk to the person who saved you?” The woman asked in a soft tone, as heat began to build in front of me.

“You call this saving me? Really?” I questioned, with a gurgling in my throat. I could feel myself slipping again, slipping into the darkness...slipping into the madness of my failure.

“I’m doing my best okay, you could at least try to be grateful.” The woman said, in a complaining sort of tone. I heard her walking next to me, the sand moving ever so slightly as she walked around to my side. The only thing I saw were her boots, which were pure black in color. I saw her bend down, and instantly a pure freezing cold took over my back, sending pain flowing through my body.

“What are you doing?!” I growled in pain, not able to do anything but lay there and suffer.

“You’ve lost more blood than your body can produce, you can’t clot this wound. I’m going to freeze it closed for now. Just enough so you can regain your aura.” She spoke, her voice now sounding more urgent.

“Don’t say that word again.” I spat.

“What word?”

“Aura.” I growled. That was one of the names of the people that had made a fool out of me. In fact...there were a lot of people who had the pleasure of being on that list.

“O-okay. Tell me your name, just so I know what to put on your gravestone if you don’t...make it.” She spoke, her voice cracking. I hadn’t come to terms with my mortality in a long while. The fact that this could be the end of my story...the fact that this could be all I had to offer this world made me sick. I had tried so hard to do what I believed was right, to fight for what I thought was important, but it wasn’t enough. It simply wasn’t.

What did I have to lose by giving my name? I was already at my end? Wasn’t I?

“Adam Taurus.” I stated weakly, I could hear just how weak my voice was getting.

“Adam Taurus? You’re the one who-”

“Don’t speak anymore. Not about that.” I said, trying to push my head up to see who was trying to save me. They certainly wouldn’t try any longer, they knew who I was. 

And who I saw sealed my fate even further. It was a human, the people I had fought against this entire time. She had soft features, with black eyes, offset by powder white skin, and hair as white as the very same company that had ruined my life. Anger filled my heart, and my mind.

“Schnee. You dare touch me.” I spat, though weakly. Her eyes widened in confusion, but then in worry.

“I think you have the wrong person, I’m not a Schnee. My name is Ria Arkari.” She said quickly, glancing over the campfire. That when I saw a huge scar on her neck, a scar that I knew to be a sword wound. “Now stay still, I need to grab more medicine.”

“Why are you helping me, you know who I am don’t you? I’ve killed so many of your kind.” I questioned, watching her walk behind the fire and bend down. She was wearing black jeans, with a white battle coat, with a shirt I could only barely see. I noticed her hair was long, going all the way to her lower back.

“My kind?” She spoke softly, stopping her rummaging. “What do you mean by my kind?”

“Humanity? Humans?” I questioned, she must have been stupid. 

“They are not my kind. You assume too much.” She spoke, standing up then walking over with a bottle of mystery liquid in her hand with a hurt look on her face. 

“What are you-“

“I know you expect me to say something cliche, like people hurt me, or that I’m not human to begin with…” She spoke, closing her eyes and sighing deeply. She then opened her eyes, a serious look in her black eyes. Eyes that reminded me of...her. “But I have no intention of doing any of that. I’ll watch over you until you get better Adam, you have no reason to be afraid here.”

“I don’t understand.” I said, my anger fading for some reason. She then bent down over me, her hair falling into my face and blocking my one eye. I felt my mouth being opened, then the very same liquid being poured down my throat. It tasted horrible, bitter and sweet at the same time, making me want to gag, but I had no energy left to do so.

“Sleep.” I heard her voice say, then I felt my body fall away from me, a lightness taking over my soul as my pain faded. I felt calm once again, and everything around me stopped.

My bliss had returned.


	2. Awoken

Anger was all that filled my soul. As my consciousness began to awaken, the pain of the past few days had consumed my soul, with the final moment...completely destroying me.

How could she have betrayed me like this a final time? How could she have stabbed me in the heart...not only emotionally but physically as well. Some may call that poetic justice but, I hadn’t always been the villain to her, where had it all gone wrong? Where had I messed up?

I opened my eyes, as if looking for the answer to my questions, but all I found was a ceiling with a fan spinning slowly above me. There was a lot of light being cast into the room, and it was a warm sort of feeling, which was completely the opposite of how I felt. I found myself finally able to move, unlike the last time I had been conscious, and pulled the blanket that surrounded me down to reveal my naked torso. 

“How am I alive?” I asked softly, staring at the scar that had formed right above my heart. I had felt her blade pierce my lifeblood so how...how had I survived? 

That woman. It was her, but still the question plagued my mind. How exactly had she saved me? By all forms of logic, I should still be dead. No spiritual healing, no medicine, and no semblance, except maybe...that person...should have been able to save me. I touched the scar, feeling the tenderness of the new skin, and felt tears coming to my eyes. Anger had since left my entire body, replaced only by sadness...I was an absolute failure.

“Why?” I questioned as I sat up, looking around the fairly bland room for the woman that had saved my life. Ria had been her name, but she wasn’t present in the room at all, instead all I could see was a simple desk, completely cleaned off with the exception of a single photo. The photo looked to be of Beacon, which just brought the sadness back to my mind. The things that had happened at The Fall were...filled with pain. The atrocities I had committed, the time I had wasted, the love I had lost.

How could I have done those things? Back then I thought they were for the greater good, but now, now I was sure it had all been a mistake. I had just been used, abused, and misled. Why was it now that I realized all of this? Why was it now, when it was too late to do anything?

Right, that was why. It had always been too late to do anything. There had never been an option out of it but yet I had kept forcing it, I had let my lust for revenge destroy what truly mattered. And destroy, it had. I looked down at my hands and I could almost feel the sheer amount of blood that was on them.

“Oh, you’re awake.” A voice said from my right, and immediately my gaze shot in the direction of the door. There, Ria stepped inside of the room, with a worried gaze on her face. She was wearing the same clothes from when I saw her on the beach, but this time she was carrying a tray of food with her.

"How did you...save me?" I asked, which was the absolute first thing that popped into my mind. 

"That's the first thing you want to know right when you wake up?" She asked softly, with a raise in her eyebrows. I simply stated her down, demanding her to tell me the answer. After being able to get a better look at her, the only real similarity this woman had to the Schnee family was her long white hair, and her pale skin, everything else was different. She had a soft, yet intelligent, look in her black eyes, as well as a very calm personality...unlike those Schnee's.

"You brought me back from literal death, for who knows why, using methods that shouldn't be possible." I asserted, which wasn't completely truthful. After my study of Beacon, there was only one person I could imagine who could have done this...but that person hadn't been seen in years.

"I suppose it does seem sort of odd from an outside perspective doesn't it? I wish I could tell you more than I gave you medicine, but really that's all I did." She shrugged, setting the food on the desk.

"What medicine did you give me that's that powerful? I've never heard of something that powerful existing." I questioned, shaking my head. If there had been such a thing, I knew I would have known. It's strategic purposes would be infinite.

"I'm not sure, I didn't make it nor buy it. Someone gave it to me for helping them. They told me it was only to be used in dire situations, when someone was in real danger." She spoke, pulling up the chair at the desk to the side of my bed, then sitting down.

"But why me? You should have left me to die knowing the things that I've done." I asserted, looking her dead in her eyes, looking for some sort of anger, but there was none. All I saw in her eyes was...calm, serenity, a lack of insanity.

"The fact that you're able to admit you have done horrible things means you understand they are horrible." She spoke softly, holding one finger up then smiling smally. "That's the first step to being a better person. That's why I saved you using that medicine, because I felt like you deserved a second chance."

"But...the amount of harm I've caused. I don't deserve a second chance." I said, turning away from her and looking at the blank wall. What was wrong with this woman, did she even grasp the concept of good and evil?

"Everyone has their reasons for what they've done. If someone can admit those actions were harmful though...means they had a good reason in their head for doing it." She spoke, leaning back in the chair then glancing out of the window that was on the far side of the room. "Besides, that's what the person who made that medicine told me I should use it on."

"What, he told you to use it on someone like me?"

"No, I explained to him this ideal that I had, and he handed me the medicine and said that I was just the person he was looking for to help him." She said, shrugging her shoulders again, then twiddling her thumbs. "Maybe he knew I would meet someone like you."

"Who is this person you speak of? May I meet him?" I asked, leaning in closer to her. It was beginning to get harder for me to even speak with the pain in my chest.

"He left just as fast as he came, went right over the sea just a few hours after you washed ashore. I thought maybe you had been awake when he came in and saw you, but I guess you weren't." She said, standing back up and bringing the food over to my bed. "He never told me his name, only that he was just a guy who wanted to help."

"Wait, how long have I been asleep?" 

"A week, I'm surprised it wasn't longer though, you were extremely injured when I found you." She explained, grabbing the spoon, and digging into the oatmeal that was on the plate. It looked like a standard breakfast...one that I had never had made for me before. 

"A week?" I questioned in an empty voice, I couldn't believe it had been that long. Then again, after the sword had pierced my heart, I never expected to wake up again. I wasn't sure I was happy that I had either.

"Did you know that man Adam? The one who gave me the medicine?" Ria asked me, putting the spoon to my mouth and pressing a bit hard. I opened my mouth reluctantly, and took a bite. The food didn't really taste like anything, but the fact that it was a home cooked meal...took my breath away.

"What did he look like?" 

"Well he was around your height, he wore a really thick black robe, and liked to hide his face a lot. He did have these weird eyes though, they were like half yellow and half purple.

"Half yellow and half purple? Can't say I've ever met anyone like that. He said he knew me?" I questioned as she fed me yet another bite.

"Yes, though he didn't say how." She nodded, then tilted her head a bit. "Say, I know your history but...who attempted to kill you?"

"I can't...I can't talk about that." I said, turning my heart away immediately. I felt disgusted in myself, distraught, and in pure pain. My emotions themselves felt worse than the stab in my heart had felt, and I yearned for them to retreat.

"Someone important to you then? I understand if you don't want to talk about it, I just want to be sure they won't try it again."

"If they knew I was alive, they would probably be surprised. I didn't even think I would survive, I doubt they did." I admitted, looking down at my body in guilt.

"Maybe that's for the better?"

"You may be right, if they knew I was alive they would return to finish the job. If they did, I don't think I'd be able to stop them." I said sadly, knowing that in her eyes I wasn't redeemable. I had done too much horror to her, I had ruined everything in her life, and this was the payment for that.

This was the price that I had to pay, the price of living with the guilt. Was that why I was still alive? Was that why I was rescued? 

"Did that man say where he was headed?" I asked, looking into her eyes and pleading her.

"He said he was going to Mantle, he said there was unfinished business he had there." 

"Then I need to go there too. Whoever that man is, I need to speak with him." I asserted, trying to get up, but she easily pushed me back down.

"No Adam, you aren't recovered yet. You cannot leave at all, I won't allow you too. You can meet with him after your a bit better, I'll take you to Mantle myself, but only if you stay here for just a little bit longer." She insisted, with eyes that I couldn't say no too. Just who was she? She didn't seem at all afraid of me like everyone else in my life had been.

"Just who are you Ria? You aren't like everyone else. You're...different?"

“Thanks for the vote of confidence there Adam.” She spoke dryly, shaking her head, then setting the tray of food on my lap. “I’m not really anyone special, I’m just Ria. I know you must expect more of me, but that’s really all I am.”

“I don’t believe that at all.” I said, boring my eyes into her. She only looked away from me though and smiled softly.

“You’re free to believe what you want, but that’s just the truth. Now finish your food, I have to go do a few chores. Don’t try to sneak out please, I don’t want to injure you while trying to help you heal.” She said softly, in a very menacing way. She then exited the room quickly, not even giving me a chance to speak.

“That girl...who could she possibly be?” I questioned aloud as I looked at my tray of food. Perhaps I could uncover the answers, but first...I had to work on my path of retribution. I would make them pay, the two who had fooled me, the humans that had abused me, and the very organization that lied to me. No more White Fang, not more secret organization, no more teams, and most of all…

No more love turning me blind to the real threats.


	3. Boat of Lost Souls

The sun. The moon. The stars. The sky. Every single one had a sort of duality with one another. Every single one relied upon each other, without one, this world wouldn't exist. Without this world, there would be nothing to give these celestial bodies meaning, they would be a meaningless collection of molecules flying through the universe.

Which was exactly how I felt now. I'm sure, if someone could peer into my mind, they would be sick of all the times I had said it up to this point. How many times I've complained. How many times I had thought about it. Pain though, does things to one's mind that just couldn't be fixed with a potion, or a power, or even a conversation.

And the sadness of that simple thought pained me even more as I stared at the setting sun glistening on the water. By my judgement, it was this very moment that my physical body had recovered from the injuries I had sustained during my battle with those...those people but the pain was still there. People said time heals all wounds, but even a month hadn’t healed my emotional wounds one bit. Those events were still fresh in my mind.

“Do you enjoy sunsets like this Adam?” A soft voice asked from behind me, a voice I instantly recognized.

“Do you intend on telling me I should be inside, Ria?” I asked coldly, not taking my eyes off of the horizon. I felt her presence get closer to me, and eventually, she stood by my side, staring out into the horizon with me. She was a considerable amount shorter than I, only coming up to my chest.

“Not this time, no, I think I’ll watch this sunset with you.” She said with a soft smile.

“Why would you do that?” I questioned, glancing at her, but she didn’t look at me. I couldn’t help but notice how her eyes literally sparkled in the light of the setting sun, and how her hair seemed to flow slowly in the light breeze. Her face was so full of life, something I hadn’t felt...since…

“You’re going to leave today aren’t you?” She asked, still not looking at me, but rather keeping her eyes locked upon the horizon.

“What makes you say that?” 

“Well we made a promise Adam, the moment you got better, I wouldn’t hold you here any longer.” She spoke, her smiling widening as she looked into my eyes. “You have your own answers to find remember? Did you expect me to beg you to stay? That really would be kind of corny to say right now in front of a sunset wouldn’t it?”

“Sometimes, you baffle me.” I sighed, shaking my head, then turning back to the sunset. The ocean had swallowed half of the sun by this point, and the red, oranges, and yellows that were reflecting were more beautiful than anything I had seen in a very long while.

“Because I’m not predictable like you?” She teased with a small laugh, turning towards me and looking me up and down. “I do hope you’ve planned all of this crossing the sea business out, it's not like I’m just going to summon some boat tickets to Mantle. Last I checked, they were still blocking everyone and anyone trying to get in." 

"Right. I had forgotten about that." I said, looking down at the beach.

"Honestly, sometimes you really are hopeless." She sighed, shaking her head and putting her hands on her hips. "There's really only one option then Adam."

"What's that?"

"A half broken boat my father left me." She said, pointing to a cliff in the distance. "I have it stored over there because...it's half broken. I never thought I would need to fix it, so I never did, but we should be able to get away with sailing there if I finesse it right."

"We? Are you inviting yourself to go to Mantle with me?" 

"Last I checked, your semblance doesn't give you the ability to patch giant holes in boats." Ria spoke, shaking her head and sighing loudly.

"And yours does?"

"My semblance is ice, if I use enough ice and we can keep it cold enough, then we shouldn't have any issues at all." She smiled, folding her arms, then turning back to the sunset. There was a moment of silence as the emotion on her face fell into one of pure calm, something that calmed even I.

"Are you sure you want to come along with me? I'm not the most loved person." I said, with genuine concern.

"The fact that you are even considering my interests shows that you are growing. You aren't the same sort of person you were before." She spoke, her voice completely serious.

"If you're implying that I've become what everyone says is a good guy, then you're wrong. I fully intend to take my revenge on those that tried to destroy me, and those that abused me." I asserted, almost challenging her statement.

"A good person is in the eyes of the beholder." She said simply, looking at me once again. "Heroes, as the world sees them, are flawed. They allow truly bad people to roam because of some sense that killing is inherently a bad thing."

"Is it not?"

"As contradictory as it sounds, no. I know that people tend to say that fighting fire with fire is a bad thing but...everyone is fine with the killing of Grimm." She explained, taking a breath. I could feel the meaning behind every word that she was saying, this wasn't something she was just bullshitting. "But when humans, or even faunus, have killed more people that even Grimm have, we have to show them some sort of sympathy when they don't wish to change? What is the sense of that?"

"Then why did you let me live, I've done horrible things. I've killed...so many. Hurt...so many." I said, pain overtaking my heart.

"As I keep telling you Adam, the fact that you are willing to admit that is what makes all the difference. Now I'm finished talking about this. The fact of the matter is, in my eyes, you are a good person, doing what you believe is right." She spoke, looking deeply into my eyes. "And I'm going to make sure that you stay on this path. Even if it means my discomfort."

"You truly are a weird woman."

"As I told you, I'm not like everyone else." She shrugged, beckoning me to follow her. I shook my head and obeyed for some reason I couldn't really figure out. Never before was I in the position of a learner, I had always been the master, and when I wasn't, I learned by my own self. I had risen up and learned how to fight on my own to destroy the Schnee's and anyone else who would dare stand in my way.

Yet here I was following a member of the exact race that had put me in that position. Sure, she wasn't like those that had put me under slavery, but just from the back, the white hair...it brought pain into my heart.

We walked for a while, until we reached a large cove, with sand as black as the night sky, where the half broken boat sat. The boat was pure white, the complete opposite of the sand, but had two large holes in the front part, as well as a completely snapped mast.

"Ria that isn't half broken, that's definitely fully broken." I said, shaking my head, but she just scoffed at me.

"Fully broken means that I couldn't possibly finesse this thing to float, and I definitely can." She said, walking off towards the cove, and the boat that looked more like a beached whale than anything else.

"I certainly hope so, I'd rather not be stuck in the middle of a Grimm infested ocean with no help and no…" I started to say, then looked down at the only thing I had left, the sheathe I held my sword in, without the sword I so prized. "Ria, I must tell you something, something you must not repeat." 

"Of course Adam, we're friends now, I'd never do anything like tell everyone a secret you have." She spoke with a smile, but those words only hurt my heart. She...she had said those words to me.

"My semblance...I don't think I can use it any longer." I said, gripping my sheathe hard. "To use my semblance, I've always needed the sword that went in this sheathe, but...it's gone. Forever gone probably…"

"So? What does that mean to me?" She questioned extremely nonchalantly, which slightly irritated.

"That means if any damn Grimm attack us, I won't be anything more than moral support. Blush, the sheathe, is only good for short range attacks." I said, trying to make her understand the gravity of the situation.

"If any Grimm want to attack us, I'll just take care of them." She shrugged, then turned around and skipped over to the boat. I, however, was just left baffled. This person that I had met was until anyone.

"Ria, do you ever have any weapons? I haven't seen you use a single one." I asked, approaching the hole in the boat, just as she did. She glanced at me with a confused look and shook her head.

"Why would I have needed to use a weapon, I have no reason to attack you." She spoke, then bent down to the bottom of the hole and placed both of her hands on the metal. She closed her eyes, and a strain appeared on her face, and amazingly I watched a thick formation of ice begin to expand from her hands. The temperature around her instantly dropped to almost freezing, and the ice sheet amazingly began to defy gravity and travel directly upward to close the hole.

“How is that even possible?” I questioned as I watched it fill the entire hole, but Ria only laughed it off.

"I told you that already, this is the power of my semblance." She spoke, shaking her head.

"I've never seen one this powerful before, that's why I'm surprised." I explained, putting my hand to the ice. Immediately the cold seared my hand, and I knew had my hand stayed there any longer, I'd be in serious danger.

"It's not that powerful Adam, don't exaggerate. That was probably the entirety of my aura for the next...couple hours?" She shrugged, walking to the front of the boat, and placing her hands on the hull. "Well instead of standing there big guy, do you want to give me a little help here?"

“Right, right.” I muttered, joining her at the front, then pushing with all of my might. I felt paint still present in my chest as I began breathing heavily, and it was then that I knew I wasn’t ever going to be back to my perfect form every again.

That was the price of being given a second chance at life.

Regardless of that however, we both managed to push the boat onto the pure blue waters of the bay, and the wall of ice actually held it above the surface. Surprising.

“See Adam, what did I tell you? Just a little ingenuity goes a long way.” She smiled, putting her hands on her hips as she admired her work.

“Actually I think the word you used was finesse.”

“Shut it Bull, I didn’t ask for your opinion.”

“But you quite literally said the words, ‘what did I tell you?’” I pointed out, only to have her sigh loudly, then shake her head.

“I guess my genius just cannot be understood by someone of such a small brain, like yourself. Perhaps I should find someone who really understands me.” She said, closing her eyes and doing a fake snivel.

“You are absolutely the most dramatic person I have ever met.” I said dryly, looking back towards the boat. It looked to be powered by simple sails, as well as a very small engine below the ship. Honestly, it would have been a miracle if the engine even worked, but knowing how Ria was, there would be a miracle that did happen. While she had told me her semblance was only ice, her ability to always be in the right time at the right place amazed me. I figured there was more to her than met my eye, but there was absolutely no way of knowing any of that.

“Well I’d say my handiwork did fine, though we probably should leave sooner than later Adam, that Ice sheet won’t last forever after all.” She spoke seriously, glancing at me with her bright white eyes.

“Yes, we probably should leave. I want to get to Mantle as soon as possible.” 

“Seems like there's something you’re searching for besides just the person who saved you.” She suggested, folding her arms and looking towards the boat.

“Perhaps there is, perhaps there isn’t. I’m not sure it’s your business to know.” I spoke dryly once again, beginning to wade out to the boat.

“That’s understandable, but by saying that, you’ve just told me there absolutely is something else you're looking for. Don’t you know that saying edgy things like that only just confirms that you’re hiding something?” She questioned, but I simply rolled my eyes and focused on the task at hand.

I would not only face the person who saved me, but I would also once again face the person who had put me here in this situation in the first place.

I would once again face Blake Belladonna, and no longer would it be an encounter of evil.


	4. Below the Surface

"Steer left!" Ria's voice barked extremely loudly, despite the pouring rain, crashing waves, and the sounds of gunshots.

"Turning!" I yelled, pulling a very large piece of wood to the right. I suppose this steering piece had a name, but I was never well versed in the long history of boat operations.

But I certainly needed to figure it out, for Ria was fighting off two Grimm at once...amazingly.

"Steer right now! These things won't get off of us!" Ria bellowed once again, landing right behind me and unloaded a clip of Ice dust into each snake-like grimm, freezing their mouths open as they dropped back into the raging waters around us. Ice cold water sprayed onto the boat as we crashed into yet another wave, and I could now say I was absolutely drenched.

What a wonderful ride this was.

"Is that the last of them!"

"Not even close! Those things are vicious! The ice should buy us some time though!" Ria shouted, and I quickly nodded my head. I turned back to the front of the boat, and I knew I should have been watching the front.

"Hold onto something!" I shouted as loudly as possible, but it was pretty much too late already. The front of the boat slammed into a wave and ripped downward by the sheer force of the huge wave, tipping the back half up extremely fast, and flinging me clear off the deck. "Fuck!"

I soared up at least 60 feet, clearing not only the boat, but also the wave that had initially caused me to go airborne, and the one after that. Though, being in the air wasn't as bad as it might have seemed, a certain weight had been lifted off of my chest. I didn't have to steer the boat anymore, I didn't have to worry about where I was going, and I didn't have to worry about-

"Ria!" I immediately screamed, twisting my body so that I could see the darkness under me, but that's all it really was. Darkness. I looked frantically for the girl who had saved my life, for the girl that had given me a second chance, for the girl that had truly changed me.

But much like my entire life, the darkness provided me no answers.

I hated these thoughts.

They all made me feel so hopeless, and I was happy when I slammed into the water. Immediately my senses were thrown into overdrive as I sank a decent way into the water. I didn't let a single breath out, and let myself rise to the surface, and eventually, I broke the water.

Only to be dragged back down by yet another wave crashing on me. I spoke a silent curse, flailing my arms and trying to find the way to the surface, but there was absolutely no way I could. Once again I was on the brink of death, and once again, the only comfort I had was the waters cold grasp.

That is until a familiar face pulled me out of the water.

"Ria!" I gasped, sucking in as much air as I could and trying to look around, but even through my faunus vision, I couldn't see anything but her face.

"We really have to stop meeting like this." She spoke in a gasp herself.

"That was cliche."

"Oh shit up, I just saved your life again." She sighed, and suddenly got really close to me, body to body, and immediately I tried to pull away from her. "Stop it, I'm trying to create an ice barrier, but we need to be close, I don't have much power left."

"This just feels like a way for you to hug me, and I don't like it."

"I don't even have a witty comeback, so I'm not going to make one." She said, and then the temperature dropped extremely rapidly around me, which was incredible considering the water was already freezing cold. I couldn't see anything that was happening, but I felt the area above me restrict.

"Are you creating an Ice bubble?"

"It'll get us there, we aren't too far." She said softly in my ear as a layer of ice appeared at my back, freezing my shirt to my skin.

"How could you possibly tell we're close? Last I checked we're in a literal storm." I argued but I just heard her chuckle weakly. I was sort of jealous of her however, while I was freezing cold, she wasn't shivering even a bit.

"Intuition I guess. I looked at the map as we were leaving, I'm guessing we're close." She spoke softly once again, her arms still held out behind me.

"So you're telling me you basically have no idea?" I asked, sighing and leaning my head back, resting my head on the ice despite how cold it really was.

"None at all, but I figure if anything, the storm will push us onto the coast."

"And if that coast is one of the many cliffs?"

"Then I suppose we'll just climb Adam." She spoke as I felt a lurch in the ice, followed by extreme acceleration. "Hopefully this is it. This journey sucked."

"Yeah." I said, spite filling my voice. It had been days since we left, and we still hadn't gotten there yet. Even with all the guard ships, Grimm, and the ocean itself, we should have made it on time.

And then I saw one of my first semblances of light above us. I could tell that I was seeing through liquid, but off in the far distance I saw floodlights coming from high in the air.

"Ria, you must have another semblance."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you just spoke Mantle into existence."

She instantly turned around, her wet hair slapping me in the face, and then she gasped.

"Holy shit I can't believe that!" She said loudly, piercing my ears. "Where do you think we are?"

"Definitely right at Atlus." I spoke looking up at the now many floodlights looming in the sky. "We're lucky our boat crashed like it did, otherwise we really would have picked up on their sensors."

"That's true, I guess everything happens for a reason then?" She asked, her black eyes shimmering in the dim light.

"Shut it, that fate crap is corny." I said rolling my eyes then turning back to the lights, and then seeing a yellow light streaking above us. It rode extremely close to the water, and then Atlus unloaded on the streak.

It was truly incredible the amount of power the Atlus military commanded, and as the bolts of red fired down on the streak, it was even more impressive that it could dodge that power. Even underwater, I could see the prowess of whatever or whoever this was.

"Who is that?" I questioned, trying to get a better look at the streak, but it had since disappeared.

"What is what?"

"There was this yellow streak that flew above us and-"

Then we slammed into land, or rather, a beach. I hadn't realized how fast we had been going until we tumbled round and round, eventually reaching a halt.

"Well we made it in one piece." I muttered as the ice began to quickly melt around us.

"That's more or less the case, what do you think those airships will think when they see two castaways on a beach?" She asked, pulling away from me as the ice turned almost instantly into freezing water. Normally it would have chilled me to the bone, but I was already there, so how much further was there to go?

"They're going to be more concerned with that yellow streak that avoided all of their strikes."

"That's really that important to them?"

"They value their military more than their people, that's how this garbage society works." I sneared, then looked around at exactly where we were.

Surrounded by a bunch of cliffs in every direction.

"Looks like you called it this time huh?" Ria asked as she kneeled to the ground, touching the mixture of sand and snow this beach was made up of. She glanced up to the cliff itself a few moments later, and spoke. "Looks like this isn't going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be."

"We'll climb, just like you said."

"Well of course we'll climb, but which direction are we climbing in?" She asked, trying to tie her wet hair back. "Do you have any idea where we're going?"

"Mantle would be the best place to start in my opinion. Someone as obscure as you described. . .they would have to be in Mantle."

"So what you're saying is that we're just walk the streets and you're going to wait until I see someone who looks like him?" She asked, standing up and putting her hands on her hips, giving me an odd look.

"It would be better if you told me exactly what he looked like, then I could look too. You missed doing that last time." I said, walking off towards the cliff area that would take us up to the Mantle tundra.

"Well I told you he wore a hood and he had those weirdo eyes, the half yellow and half purple ones. For real, it was really weird. It was almost like he was a god or something." She spoke in amazement, then I quickly watched her whole expression drop as she looked at me with a dull gaze. "And no, I do not think he is a god or alluding to the fact that I know he's a god. He was almost totally normal to me."

"A normal guy who gave you the cure to a sword through the heart?"

Immediately she blinked her eyes hard, then sighed and facepalmed hard, letting her hands ride down to her chin as she turned back towards the cliff.

"He probably just used some sort of super powerful Aura booster that he got with his semblance."

"Meaning be has one of the most powerful semblances on the planet." I pointed out, putting my hands into my pockets.

"It can't even attack! How is that the most powerful semblance on the planet?!"

"Isn't it obvious? The semblance can basically revive critical injuries." I said, shaking my head. "If any other group learned about it, the rate of death in their group would decrease drastically, meaning a bunch more issues for the world. If I had learned about it, I know I would have exploited it."

"And you won't do that now?"

"The White Fang is basically nothing without me, or without its previous…" I started to say, remembering the tiger faunus who had once ruled over the white fang. Once again, the horrible things I had done tore down any happiness I had gained over the past month. The past just wouldn't die in my mind. "Leader."

"That's quite a confident thing to say coming from you." Ria spoke, now wringing out her hair after getting annoyed with it.

"Not to mention, the world probably thinks I'm dead at this point, as they should." I spoke, without a single regret.

"You're happy with being presumed dead?"

"It's as you said. It's a chance at a new life." I spoke, taking a deep breath and taking note of the cold salty air. I glanced up at the looming cliff and I knew it was going to be a struggle to get up there, especially given the fact that I didn't know how hard I could push myself. I had a damaged heart to think about.

"I mean, if you use it right, you won't ever have to interact with those people who did that to you. Speaking of which, you still haven't told me exactly what happened." Ria pointed out, running up in front of me and walking backwards so she could face me. "Was it a girl?"

"Shut up."

"Ohhhh, so was it a guy?"

"In your dreams."

"So then it was a girl."

"Why are you so persistent about this? You're like an annoying teenage girl." I grumbled, looking out to the sea just to avoid looking at her. I felt nothing but pain in my entire body, the moment she had been brought up...I couldn't bear it. I wasn't sure what hurt more: The things I had done to her, or the fact I would never be able to erase those things.

"Well to be completely fair, I am a teenage girl." She said, turning back around and walking in front of me dramatically as she eyed the cliff. I didn't say a word to her, figuring she would burn herself out, and she did. For the rest of the walk to the cliff, we walked in complete silence, with only the ocean making any noise.

That was until a very bad feeling entered my body. I looked around, wondering where the sense of dread was coming from. I looked around the darkness, holding my hand close to my shethe just in case. It was nothing without the sword, but at least it would give close range support.

"Ria, I think something is-" I said turning over to Ria, only to see her get slashed in the back by an Ice Sabyr, sending crimson blood into the air, and a loud scream to go with it. I watched as she spun slightly, her black eyes wide with surprise, but closing extremely quickly as if she were in slow motion. She hit the ground without a sound, and without a single movement, with only the crimson liquid moving in that moment. For a moment, all I could do was look at her body, laying there lifeless.

And then, I lost my mind.


End file.
